Rehabbing My Conquest X-30:

[polyphenus]

So I ordered some new stickers from Cobra Stickers and dragged my vintage Conquest out of storage on Sunday. I’m really excited about cleaning it up and making it look spiffy again. Here’s where I am so far:

I have removed all of the original stickers (which were nice and sticky from years in the attic) and taken the plane apart. I was able to remove all of the component pieces except the front landing gear since I can’t seem to lift the holding tab up enough to pull the landing gear free. I didn’t want to exert too much force since it’s over twenty years old so I left it in place and will clean it as is. Everything else came apart like it should with only minor pressing and pulling.

This morning I used Goo Gone and a toothbrush to remove the sticker residue from the top half of the plane and then followed that up with a scrubbing of dish soap from a handheld plastic scrubber. I’ll repeat this clean-up procedure with each of the remaining pieces (hopefully tonight). Once finished I’ll reassemble everything and prep for new stickers.

I came across a couple of oddities while disassembling and cleaning so far:

1. The old stickers left a slight color variance on the plastic from where they protected the plastic that they covered from the elements. Being a light gray plane this color variance is not too noticeable. I was more concerned with the slight fogging that I saw in the plastic which I can only attribute to the time spent in a hot attic for many years. Neither is a big deal to me since the new stickers will really work to shine the whole plane up a great deal. The other thing related to the plastic is that some of the faint yellowing that is on the surfaces will give the Conquest a slightly weathered appearance. Again, it’s not very noticeable and looks acceptable to me.

2. The canopy that I have has become slightly scratched with time. Is there a recommended way in which to polish this piece to remove some of the bigger scratches? I know that there are various plastic buffing compounds for iPods and such that can work wonders with certain scratches. Is it worth it to try to polish the Conquest’s canopy?

I’m very excited about cleaning my Conquest and getting it back into ship-shape. I will most likely pick up a new Conquest from Target when they debut but nothing can beat the original plane that I received for my birthday twenty-one years ago. Now my new Capt. Ace figure can fly a jet instead of stare blankly through his helmet…

[chickenbroth]

Novus plastic polish. Use it on the entire plane. It will make the plastic look like it just came out of the box. Use it on the canopy too. They have different grits. #2 is for minor scratches, but they have a #3 for heavier scratches. After polishing wipe the plane down with alcohol so the stickers will stick well.

I'll post pics of mine tonight. I used 334th stickers and it looks great.

[statesofeuphoria]

Where would you get that plastic polish at?

[hwheels2]

I havent tryed cleaning my conquests canopy yet.but be Careful with the canopy plastic.
I recently ran into a problem with my Whales front windshield.i used novus on it but it fogged the crap out of it.I had 2 windshields and both are ruined now.
i believe it was just the type of plastic it was made of(a rubbery type)that did this.
maybe test a small corner first.

[chickenbroth]

Originally Posted by statesofeuphoria

Where would you get that plastic polish at?

I know its available online and from some companies dealing with plexi and acrylics.

[chickenbroth]

Originally Posted by hwheels2

I havent tryed cleaning my conquests canopy yet.but be Careful with the canopy plastic.
I recently ran into a problem with my Whales front windshield.i used novus on it but it fogged the crap out of it.I had 2 windshields and both are ruined now.
i believe it was just the type of plastic it was made of(a rubbery type)that did this.
maybe test a small corner first.

I used #2 on 2 conquests and 1 rattler canopies with no problems. That sucks about your whale glass. I've never seen a whale in person so I didn't know it was rubbery. Any other Joe vehicles use that type of material?

[Agent-GHQ]

I want to see some pics.

[polyphenus]

I cleaned the rest of the Conquest last night and reassembled it. The plane looks great! Even my wife commented about how much of a difference a simple scrubbing made to the overall look. All that remains is the sticker process, which for me takes a long time since I am a perfectionist and use tweezers to minimize the finger oils that get on the adhesive. I hope to be finished tonight or sometime this week and will try to post pictures of the end result.

[wheeljaxx]

I did this to my Skystriker. looks brand new.

[sharke]

yeah did same for my Mamba. amazing the difference